


Charmed

by Dwimordene



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: 3rd Age - The Stewards, General
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 08:25:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4214908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dwimordene/pseuds/Dwimordene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the Thain's house, not even a wizard's chambers are sacrosanct.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Charmed

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

For Marta: penance for crack!fic nuzgûl.  
  


* * *

  
  
If he weren't a wizard, he might not have felt the eyes staring at his back, nor perhaps paid much heed to the sudden change in the air, as if anxiety had walked into the room in his wake.  
  
Smoothly he continued to his pack, which sat by the bed, with the fireworks, seeming quite undisturbed, but a wizard knows better. Dragons may know every penny in their lair, but not even a dragon has a better nose for mischief, even in such sedate parts as the Smials of Gerontius Took.  
  
And so, without so much as touching his belongings, Gandalf straightened (as much as he could) and said to the seemingly empty room: "You might as well come out and let me guess what you've got from my bags."  
  
For a long moment, nothing happened, but then he heard a slight rustling, and turned to see a small figure—smaller than most even in the Shire—appear from underneath a well-stuffed chair in the corner. Gandalf raised a bushy brow.  
  
"It would appear," he said, a little less gruffly than he might have, "that rumor is in the wrong, and it is not the Took lads one must be wary of." This garnered a chubby-cheeked blush, and the old wizard snorted, but then relented. "Come, my dear, you have the advantage of me," he said; "I presume you know who I am if you are here, but I do not believe I have met you."  
  
"Bella," she replied, eyes downcast. For she it was, and a very young she at that. Possibly ten. Possibly younger, the wizard thought, watching brown lashes flutter a bit as she tried to look up without seeming to.  
  
"Bella—a bold name for a bold young lady. And what, may I ask, were you doing under my chair?"  
  
"I... was hiding."  
  
"And took no thought for the poor chair's repute all the while, to be accomplice to a spy?" More likely ten, Gandalf decided, for the blush deepened. "Come, what brought you lass?"  
  
"The boys."  
  
Had the Took lads invaded already, then, while he had been away? Or had they put her up to it? "And what did the lads say or do to turn a perfectly respectable Took into a spy?"  
  
"Hildi says he's been in and took a charm."  
  
This was becoming rather more interesting than bargained for. "Has he, now?" Gandalf replied, thoughtfully. There was definitely promise there, if that were so...  
  
"No, he hasn't," Bella replied, sounding rather scornful now.  
  
The wizard raised a brow. "I think perhaps you had better tell me the whole story, my dear. Who is Hildi?"  
  
"My brother—one of the older ones. He said he had crept in and taken a magic charm and would turn everyone into frogs." Bella's nose wrinkled slightly, and she dared to look up now, outrage apparently giving her courage. "But he hasn't! He lied, I know he did."  
  
"I take it that there have been no unusually large frogs seen about the Smials," Gandalf said, deadpan. She shook her head.  
  
"Nothing. Besides, he's still scared to go near you because Semba told him he saw you call down a murder of crows to chase Polo Baggins out of the Bamfurlong mushrooms."  
  
"Whereas you are not afraid, it appears."  
  
" _Did_ you call down the crows?" she asked.  
  
"Crows are rather fickle, dour creatures, I fear; I haven't much luck with crows," he replied, stroking his beard, and hid a smile when she seemed disappointed. "More to the point, I haven't been up in the Marish for quite some time—since before your father's time, I believe. You _are_ Belladonna Took, are you not?"  
  
"I am. It's an awful name, though."  
  
"Lovely bloom, but with a bite others should beware of—it suits you, I believe," Gandalf replied, and shook his head. "Now then, since we have spoken of your brother, what brought _you_ here? Are _you_ looking for a chorus of frogs?"  
  
"No! I wouldn't steal, I just wanted to look. I-I thought if I could say I knew what was in your bag, I could show him up. Or maybe make something..."  
  
"Something that looks like a wizard's charm?" When she nodded, Gandalf chuckled softly. "You might have made anything, and it would have done just as well to give him pause. But here you came creeping into a guest's room on the eve of the Midsummer's celebration to look for yourself. How delightful!"  
  
"You're not angry then?"  
  
"Not today," Gandalf replied, sanguinely, which seemed to suffice. She breathed a little deeper. "I fear, though, that I haven't any charms to show you."  
  
"But you're a wizard!" she protested, her round little face filling with dismay.  
  
"I am that, but we sorcerous folk are not all of a kind, you see, and I've had as much luck with charms as with crows. However," he said then, a twinkle in his eye, "I _do_ have a good way with crickets. Very polite creatures for insects, crickets—very obliging. My cousin Radagast introduced me. Now, if you will take my advice, my dear, you may yet get something from this visit besides a new coat of dust..."  
  
 _I really must make the acquaintance of more Tooks,_ Gandalf thought, when Belladonna had departed to go and find a bit of string and an old walnut shell and some feathers. _There aren't enough principled dreamers in the world. Well, perhaps tonight—certainly tonight. Once we're done with this bit of business..._ Perhaps even one of her brothers—a prankster and (it appeared) a mushroom thief—it was something to work with.  
  
But he'd wait and see how they handled the chorus of crickets appearing to sing at Belladonna's command. And he had better go and find a few before the sun went down and supper began. Still chuckling, the wizard checked his bags for good measure, just to be certain all was as it ought to be, and he gave his fireworks—the special ones he alone knew how to make—a pat.  
  
It ought to be, he decided, a most interesting night indeed...  
  


* * *

  
  
A/N: Ok, this is the best I can do. Marta asked for young hobbits playing pranks for [Come Back to Me](http://www.henneth-annun.net/stories/chapter.cfm?stid=6370), but I was never a prankster as a kid, so I don't have a good head for any of that sort of thing, and I think it kind of shows. But leaving that aside, Belladonna Took was said to have been "one of the three remarkable daughters of the Old Took," though we don't know what exactly made her remarkable (TH, 2). We do know she didn't have any adventures _after_ she married Bungo Baggins, but there's a wide scope for mischief and adventure beforehand, I guess. Of her brothers, two appear to have fallen under some un-hobbitish influence: Isengar went to sea in his youth, supposedly, and Hildifons (scared brother Hildi) went off on an adventure, never to return again, according to the family trees. 'Semba' is Isembard, another older brother, and Polo Baggins was the brother of Rosa Baggins, who married Belladonna's other brother Hildi, Hildigrim.  
  
None of this, of course, was anything I knew before writing this. I thought I'd be writing Bilbo as a prankster, and in the course of looking up his relationship with Gandalf, read about his mother and was struck by the fact that in every young-hobbits-play-pranks story I've ever read, it's always the boys who have all the fun. That had to be rectified, even if Belladonna will have to wait for someone else to write her the really good adventures after this rather quiet beginning.


End file.
